Chinese snack latiao goes global

Forget about steamed buns and smelly tofu, and meet the hot new Chinese snack – latiao! The spicy sticks that are enjoying their fifteen minutes of fame on the global palate.

别想馒头和臭豆腐了，来看看最新流行的中国小吃——辣条！这种辛辣的小吃在全世界大出风头。

The cheap "delicacy" is made from gluten, the stuff that makes bread dough chewy. The stick of protein is spicy and is commonly sold at roadside stands.

这种廉价的"美味"是由面筋做的——它可以使面包嚼起来更筋道。这种蛋白质棒非常辣，在路边摊都可以买到。

The snack leapt to national and international fame recently when an overseas Chinese student posted a picture of his foreign classmates "enjoying" the snack online.

最近，一名海外留学生在网上贴出了他的外国同学非常"享受"辣条的视频，使得这个零食跃入了国内外的视线，名声大噪。

The latiao fervor came one month after it caught the attention of a British film crew, and in February, the BBC aired a three-part documentary on Chinese New Year celebrations in which the two presenters were seen roaming a typical Chinese snack street, latiao in hand.

辣条还引起了英国电影摄制组的注意，二月，BBC播出了三集的纪录片《中国新年庆祝》，片中两位主持人手里拿着辣条，在中国一个典型的小吃街闲逛。之后的这个月里，辣条热开始兴起。

"Latiao is the most popular snack for under-25s in China," one of them said, which seems a little far-fetched, to say the least.

其中一人说，"辣条是最受中国25岁以下的年轻人欢迎的小吃。"这似乎有点牵强，但这样说也可以接受。

A still from the documentary, also posted on WeChat, fueled a sense of online patriotism, with many shocked — horrified, even — that foreigners would go nuts over the humble latiao, which costs as little as 8 U.S. cents. #Latiaomostpopularsnack became one of the "most-trending" on microblog Sina Weibo.

该纪录片的剧照也被转发到了微信，激发了网友们的爱国主义情怀，许多人惊呆了——甚至感到震撼——外国人也会对中国这么不起眼的辣条发狂，要知道这东西售价才8美分。"最受欢迎的零食辣条"成为新浪微博的"热门话题"。

Of the top ten "Chinese snacks" on eBay, four items are latiao in different packagings, with prices ranging from 10.33 dollars to 25 dollars. Searching "Chinese snacks" on amazon.com, latiao is the first item to pop up, with each packet priced at 12.99 dollars. Liu, a Chinese student studying in New York, said latiao was a favorite snack since he was a child, but after arriving in the United States, he had to buy it on the Internet.

在易趣网上排名前十的"中国零食"中，有4项都是不同包装的辣条，价格从10.33美元到25美元不等。而在亚马逊上搜索"中国零食"，弹出的第一项结果就是辣条，每包售价12.99美元。在美国留学的小刘说，辣条是他小时候非常喜爱的零食，但自从他到了美国，就只能从网上买到了。

"As time goes by, more of my classmates are beginning to enjoy the snack," Liu said.

他说，"随着时间推移，我的很多同学们也开始喜欢上了辣条。"

In China, the latiao industry generates an estimated value of 20 billion yuan, with 10 companies each producing latiao worth over 100 million yuan a year. Production has expanded in recent years.

中国辣条行业的总产值约为200亿元，其中年产值在1亿元以上的有10家公司。最近几年又开始扩大生产。

Min Quanlu, production manager of WL-Foods, a major latiao maker, said that the company used to package the snack by hand. until five years ago, when demand exploded. Now everything is automated.

卫龙食品是一个主要的辣条生产商，该司产品经理敏全路表示，过去一直是人工包装辣条，直到5年前，需求扩大，现在所有的生产都机械化了。

"We make 600 million yuan's worth of latiao each year and employ about 2,000 workers," Min said. "About 20 percent of our products are sold in the domestic market, and the rest goes overseas."

他说，"我们共有约2000名工人，每年生产的辣条价值约6亿元，其中20%销往国内市场，其它的全部出口。"